TexMessage: Stockman blames Obama and Senate for NASA sequestration

TexMessage

Good morning TexMessagers! Should NASA escape cuts brought about by sequestration?

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Steve Stockman, R-Friendswood, slammed President Obama and the Senate for sequestration’s possible cuts to NASA.

Stockman made his comments at the Johnson Space Center on Wednesday.

“NASA funding fulfills one of the few legitimate functions of government. Friday’s destructive explosion over Russia of a meteor we never saw, and the near-hit by an asteroid, should be a warning to Obama against further cuts to NASA,” Stockman said in a statement. “Cuts to NASA jeopardize our safety and security.”

Stockman is a member of the House Science Space and Technology Committee, and sits on the subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.

Stockman said the House had passed two bills to prevent sequestration, but they failed in the Senate. He said two areas are better suited for government cuts.

“It makes no sense to cut NASA funding while we’re spending $2.2 billion to give people free cell phones,” Stockman said. “We’re spending $26 billion on food stamps for people who make too much money to qualify for them, but we’re cutting NASA? That’s irresponsible.”

The cell phone program was part of the Lifeline program, a phone program created in 1984. The Wall Street Journal reported the program had widespread abuse when it expanded to providing cell phones, though the Federal Communications Commission since tightened restrictions.

Sequestration will automatically cut government agencies like NASA by 8.2 percent, should congress fail to act by March 1. Allard Beutel, a spokesman for NASA said this means the agency, which has a $17.7 billion budget for this year, would have to find $726 million in cuts for the remaining six months of this fiscal year.

Beutel said these cuts would create serious delays and shrinking ambitions in many NASA projects. He said these included programs such as the re-launching of human spacecraft in the US, the development of newer spacecraft, space-based earth observation, and observation of near-earth objects such as asteroids.

Beutel said the budget has been stable at NASA for the past several years, and this has helped the organization’s planning. For example, he noted the program to re-launch human spacecraft—a partnership with US companies—planned for 2017, depends on consistent year to year funding levels.

“We’re still hopeful that we’ll work something out in the next week,” Beutel said of sequestration.

? March 13 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of House Appropriations Committee will hold hearings on proposed fiscal 2013 appropriations for programs under its jurisdiction.

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